Dusk
by Mushmallow62
Summary: A/U. Shinji Hirako is no longer human, now he's been turned due to an experiment tht his friend, Kisuke created; keeping out of his enemies way, he's trying to live, and get revenge.
1. Chapter 1

The blonde haired young man watched on as his friend, with messy blonde hair and a creased forehead; was searching desperately through all the books that were around them, on the floor and everywhere else that he could find.

Currently the blonde man was feasting on some rat's blood; knowing, of course, that it wouldn't be enough for him to quench his hunger, later he'd have to go out and get some _real _blood, human blood.

"There's no way to turn you back," His friend said with a sigh, his head bowed in defeat.

"Tch, I knew that Kisuke,"

"Shinji…" Kisuke began, his grey eyes apologizing to him.

"It's not your fault," The blonde, who had now placed to carcass of the bloodless rat into the bin, stood up and looked at his friend.

His friend who had aged so quickly in the few hours after his change had happened. His friend; who had created the concept of his new form.

"I can live like this" Shinji continued, indicating to his retracted fangs; "I have to,"

"But…"

"I'm not willing for you to endanger yourself for me," He turned towards the door; "Thanks for getting me out, but I can't stay, and you know why,"

"All right," Kisuke nodded, knowing better than to argue and also knowing that there would be no point; "Be careful,"

"Tch, before you came along, I was," He teased and left the room.

Kisuke sighed, his friend, one of the few friends he had, was now one of the undead.

A vampyre.

And it was due to him not being careful with certain notes that were now in the wrong hands.

Or to be exact; Sosuke Aizen's hands.

Now all he could do is to figure out a way to turn his friend back into a mortal; but part of him believed that it was impossible. It took him a long time to come up with the experiment in the first place, and from what he could gather from it; there was no real cure.

Shinji Hirako would never be human, could never feel the sun on his skin, and could never be like the majority of the population.

Mortal.

All because he, Kisuke Urahara wanted to find out if it was possible for humans to actually become vampyres. Not one's that feed on the energy around them, no; one's that need to feast on blood to survive.

Now his best friend was the experiment that should never have happened.

_Now I know how Dr Frankenstein felt…_ Kisuke thought to himself, feeling a pang of guilt in his heart, he shook his head and made himself focus; _there has to be a way…_

He set to work, re-reading the copies of his work, checking to see if there was anyway, anyway at all that what had been done and created could be reversed.


	2. Chapter 2

Over twenty years have now passed, Kisuke had failed at trying to find a cure for Shinji; and learned that Aizen had created more vampyre's, but he also learned that Aizen had changed parts of the experiment; whether it was an improvement Kisuke didn't know, neither did Shinji, since the original experiment hadn't seen Aizen or his friends Gin and Tousen in all those years.

In Kisuke's mind, it was always a wonder of why Aizen had changed parts of his notes, why when he didn't know what the original finished product was like?

Shinji however had plenty of time to see what his new body was like; however in those two decades, he had never once met another like him. But this night was different.

He was wandering around, like he normally did at night; he'd already ate before hand when he came across a girl with hair like fire.

_Almost _Shinji mused to himself; _Like the sun._

"Hey." He said to her, and she vanished; he looked at where she had been and wondered if it was an illusion, if he was that desperate to see another of his kind, and she plainly was, her fangs were obvious, but she looked like she had just fed.

Over the next few nights he kept seeing her. Every time, every time he would call to her, and every time she would vanish.

"Hey! Wait!" Shinji called out before she fled and she stopped to look at him; "You're… Like me,"

She nodded slowly, allowing him to walk up towards her as she stood by a tree in the local park.

He noted how tense she was, ready to either fight or flight; and Shinji didn't want to fight anyone. Not because he couldn't, but he didn't want to fight someone that cute.

"Why did you run?" He asked her.

She simply blinked at him.

"Why did you run away from me?" He asked his voice louder but still calm; he was tense, knowing that it could easily be a trap of some sort.

"He told me that… If I see one with blonde hair and that type of hat I was to keep away," She finally told him.

Shinji touched the cap he was wearing; he used to always wear them when he was at school, now he didn't, only when he wanted to, when he wanted to remember the days when he was mortal.

"He?" Shinji questioned.

"Mr Aizen," She stated and then once again just vanished.

Shinji froze, unable to believe that it was _him_; "He made you?" He whispered, knowing full well that the girl was gone, and unable to believe that Aizen had made more of them… More vampyre's.

***

He walked down the back ways of town, he'd fed rather well and now he just wanted to return to his flat and watch the rubbish on TV. For once he didn't want to be out wandering tonight.

However, that plan changed when he saw the girl again. She had just fed herself, given by the slumped form of the homeless man by the bins.

"Yo," He said softly, careful not to make her retreat, he wanted answers. In fact he _needed_ answers.

She was careful, her grey eyes making sure that she had a route to escape; of course even if she hadn't Shinji would have let her escape anyway. There was no point in capturing her if she wasn't going to speak. Besides words being said should be said from her own free will.

"You said that Aizen made you?" He asked trying to make sure she didn't feel like he was a threat to her.

"Yes, and my friends," She smiled slightly, moving away from the bins; "Although they would probably say that they aren't my friends,"

Shinji smiled; "I'll bet,"

"Oh…" She began to back away from him; "I…"

"You know, I haven't killed you," He pointed out, his voice still calm and soft.

"No…" She looked unsure, her eyes looking at him and the ladders that would take her away from him; this vampyre she seemed to consider as an enemy.

_But an enemy of her's or Aizen's?_ Shinji thought to himself, and carefully came up to her, like one would with a frightened animal.

"Then why are you afraid of me?"

"Because Mr. Aizen…" She trailed off and looked thoughtful; realizing that the man who had created her had never told her the reason _why_ she and the other have had to be wary of this particular vampire.

_He's never attacked me. Never threatened me… Of course he could be planning something…But why not the others?_ She thought to herself, trying to figure out if Aizen, her creator was right, which she always assumed he was; or if this vampire, one who never did anything to her, was not one to be afraid of.

"I'm not going to kill you, I won't do anything to you," He stated; "Don't you ever want to… Do what you want to do? I know you can't have much freedom, I've only seen you a few times in a month, and I've lived in this city for 20 years,"

Her grey eyes widened in surprise once he said that; "I can't… I can't leave him,"

Shinji raised an eyebrow; _She can't leave Aizen?_

"I mean…" She looked unsure if she should say anything else, but she did know that he had a point; "Some… Some of us have mates," She informed him with a slight blush; "And I can't…"

_It's not Aizen then._ Shinji sighed in relief; "I get it," _So some of us can have partner's… Good to know._

"And, I don't know you," She added, deciding that now was the time and then she disappeared.

He sighed, knowing that he had tried. However, she had shared more information this time than she had before… Perhaps she wanted something outside of what Aizen had given her.

_But with a mate, she can't do it on her own._ Shinji wondered, if mates for vampyres' were the same as human's, or was it something different?

***

A few nights later, on another of his wanderings around the city, Shinji meet a raven haired young man with deathly pale skin and intense green eyes.

"So, you are Hirako Shinji,"

He tensed up; "And you are?"

"I am Chiffer Ulquiorra," The raven haired man told him; "Orihime told me about you; and how she thought that Lord Aizen was over-reacting,"

Shinji knew he had to be careful, this vampyre… wasn't one to be underestimated, nor was he one to be over come with simple words. One wrong move and he knew that this fight could possibly go either way.

"And?"

"She also told me that you had suggested that she leave," Ulquiorra said the last word with distain.

_Due to his suggestion, is that why Ulquiorra sounds angry? Or at the thought of her leaving him?_ Shinji thought, but nothing in Ulquiorra's body language gave anything away; "She said that she couldn't, since her mate was there,"

"Her mate. That would be me," The raven haired vampyre stated while examining Shinji; "I do agree that we should leave, however she does have a habit of enjoying other people's company – living or the undead," His expression didn't show whether he approved of Shinji or not.

"You know that Aizen isn't who you think he is," Shinji said, knowing that he had to say it; this vampyre appeared to be intelligent and was more than willing to anger Aizen than his mate was – or maybe he was bored with all the rules that Aizen must have placed on all of his 'creations'.

"Oh I know, I'm not naïve; but my duty is to protect Orihime,"

"Then join me, we can leave here and find other's…" Shinji trailed off; he wasn't sure there would be any other's of there kind; after all he had spent 20 years of his undead life in this city and only now had he met any other vampyre's, and they had been created by the man who made him!

"It's a good offer, and the girl would be safer," Ulquiorra considered; "We'll meet at midnight, over in the park by the Yamato monument," He told him, his tone suggestion that there was no point in arguing.

"All right," Shinji grinned and Ulquiorra looked at him for a moment, perhaps to gauge him and then walked away.

"_What were you thinking?!"_

Shinji didn't jump, he'd know that voice anywhere; he looked down at the black cat that spoke to him.

"Nothing,"

"_That is one of Aizen's men!_"

"Vampyre," He corrected the cat.

"_He created…_"

"He turned them. Means nothing," Shinji dismissed it, as they began to walk towards his home.

"_Shinji, this is your choice, but be careful…_"

"I'm not an idiot Yourichi; I won't just walk into a trap,"

The cat was silent, looking down to speak sadly; _"You miss having company_,"

"Wha…?" Shinji looked at the black cat in shock; "I have you…"

"_And you also used to have Urahara. But he's… Gone…_" The cat said the last part with great difficultly.

They became silent, both mourning the loss over their friend.

Kisuke had died a few month's ago; it was reported as suicide, since he always acted so happy and chirpy that it had to be fake; but other's although a smaller amount, all said that someone killed him. Shinji and Yourichi were in that minority, they knew a vampyre killed Kisuke, but they weren't sure why; they knew that Kisuke had given up on finding a cure of what happened to Shinji and he never came up with any other threatening ideas; so why would a vampyre kill him?

Shinji sighed; "Yea, I do miss the company. But I've got a hunch that Orihime will want to leave Aizen anyway; and if she does then Ulquiorra will too,"

"_If you are sure_," Yourichi said, but still sounded unsure.

"Why not join us?" He asked.

Yourichi laughed; "_We both know that is impossible. I'm a werecat and you are a vampyre,_"

"Yea," Shinji grinned; "A silly question, but I still wanted to know,"

The cat looked at him seriously; "_Look, if you need me…"_

"I know," He said with a nod.

The cat then ran down an alley way, leaving the blonde alone.

Sighing he looked up, thinking about his family and how much things had changed since he himself was changed.


	3. Chapter 3

Shinji had nightmares during the day, it wasn't a normal occurrence for him to have any type of dream; but when he had nightmares… They affected him for a few days. It was the same when he was mortal too; but it was Kisuke or even Hyori who knocked him out of it.

_Hyori._ Shinji smiled, as he remembered his little sister, so easy to anger and such a short temper. He sat down on the couch, taking out the photo album that Youriche had managed to get from his old room

Opening it just brought back all the memories of his past life; of his mortal life.

It had to be said, he was never angry at Kisuke for the change that happened to him, it happened. However, he did have moments, like this one; when he wished he could see his family. In fact, not just seeing them, but just talking to them, letting them know that he was all right.

Instead he resorted to spying on them. He watched as Hyori's anger took a dramatic turn, her temper was even shorter than usual, but he watched her late at night, when she was in her room, looking through her photo album, and pausing over the photo's of herself and Shinji when they were kids and letting the tears fall.

Seeing her cry, over him no less; just made him want to break the window and reassure her that he hadn't runaway from home, but things had happened that meant he had to keep his distance. Over and over Shinji played that day-dream in his head, but when he focused back on the world around him, he knew too well that it wouldn't and couldn't happen.

Over time he watched Hyori slowly push memories of him away, she rarely took out the photo album after a decade had gone by. And by then she had joined the army; which Shinji laughed at when he told Youriche and Kisuke about it, it was the perfect place for Hyori, to make her a more balanced person.

He closed the album, deciding that he needed to go out but knew he didn't really want to walk around the humans. He would go to one of the graveyards instead; he'd grown rather fond of them, they were rather pretty and unique in a rather morbid way.

***

Ulquiorra waited patiently with Orihime as the blonde vampire, wearing black jeans, a white shirt and a black leather jacket just sauntered over to them with a grin.

"Yo,"

Ulquiorra stared at him with disgust. However he knew that this blonde was smarter than all the other vampyres he had met; although they were the other one's that Aizen had created.

Shinji looked at them; Ulquiorra was wearing a black suit and a cloak which was lined with jade green inside; while Orihime wore a rather cute dress. And the blonde couldn't really comment on dresses, since his sister refuse to wear them.

"Shinji!" Orihime smiled at him.

"Where do you plan to go now?" Ulquiorra asked, and the blonde noticed that he wasn't at all jealous of the attention Orihime was giving him.

"Out of the city," He informed them with a grin; "I know of a place where we can stay,"

"We should go," Orihime looked at her mate who nodded; but she appeared troubled; Ulquiorra took her hand into his own for a moment and she was once more calm and smiled at him slightly.

Watching this, Shinji realized why they were mates; obviously opposites; but they needed each other, to remain balanced and whole.

"Aizen had told all of us that you were the first," Ulquiorra said, the 'us' referred to the other vampyre's that Aizen had managed to create.

"I had no say," Shinji began, starting to tense up.

"Nor did we," He interrupted.

The blonde looked at them; "He forced you?"

"Not exactly," Ulquiorra said, and Orihime looked down; "He gave us food and a place to sleep… Due to that we felt like we owed him some of our time; we never realized that this," He gestured to his own body; "Would be the result. Perhaps we were idiots…"

"I wouldn't have met you," Orihime said softly, causing her mate to pause and nod in agreement.

Shinji knew from the beginning, but now he saw it was true; Ulquiorra wasn't exactly in touch with his emotions, at least not to express them out in the open. He looked away and then looked back at them with a grin.

"Let's go,"

***

During their traveling Shinji remembered old memories that he never really bothered with before. Not because they mattered little to him, if anything they molded him into what he was now. Literally.

It was just over twenty years ago when his friend Kisuke came up with a way to make people immortal; or at least semi-immortal, and he'd been foolish around with the idea for a fair amount of time.

"So, vampire…" Shinji had said, completely uninterested.

"Vamp-Y-re," Kisuke had corrected him and Shinji resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

"All right. Why?" He asked.

"To see if it can be done!" Kisuke exclaimed, excited over his 'hobby'; "If it can actually come true, for vampyre's to truly exist outside the world of TV and film!"

Shinji raised an eyebrow at his friend; "I thought…"

"Only to an extent, human's who absorbed the energy of other's; some of them even drink blood from certain 'donors'. But nothing as amazing as an actual vampyre!" Kisuke said with a smile.

"You are obsessed," Shinji stated and shook his head in disbelief at his friend.

"It's fascinating Shinji!"

And over the next year Kisuke had perfected his research, and learned exactly how a vampire could be made.

***

"I was just a test run," Shinji suddenly informed his two new companions.

Orihime had no idea what he spoke about, but Ulquiorra did.

"Aizen perfected what Kisuke had begun,"

The blonde just glanced at the vampire in question.

"He used what Kisuke had created, but also added in other parts," He explained, but said no more.

"Ulquiorra is a bat," Orihime said with a smile.

Shinji grinned but the raven haired vampire's expression remained the same as he spoke;

"Orihime is a fairy,"

Hearing this didn't really surprise Shinji; Kisuke also told him that he could possibly add extra elements, like some animal abilities. Of course it meant that Aizen's vampyre's were a bit more powerful.

They stopped at a cemetery, Shinji could sense dawn was coming, and he knew full well the other two could too.

"Might as well stay here," He told them and they went to the mausoleum.

Ulquiorra picked a coffin on the far side, easily opening it and scrapping the previous occupant out. The pale vampire reached out for his mate;

"Come with me,"

Orihime did as he asked and entered the coffin with him, he carefully positioned the lid back and they were asleep.

Shinji carefully entered his own coffin and closed the lid, he sighed, wanting to think more; but the sun was rising and his eyes were closing….

***

And so they continued on to travel towards the city that Shinji felt that they would be safe in. It did give the companions' time to get used to each other, learn from each other even.

"A God?! Shinji repeated what Orihime had said was Aizen's nickname for her.

"Yup,"

"He's a fool," Ulquiorra stated.

"Wha…?" His mate looked at him completely confused, and no wonder since what Shinji had learned was that Ulquiorra was Aizen's favorite vampyre, the only one whom he entrusted all his missions to.

"You are not a God," He once more stated; "You are a Goddess,"

The red haired vampyre blushed, and Shinji realized that this was as close to Ulquiorra admitting his feelings to her as he would; or could; get.

But he had also come to realize other things, such as Aizen making more vampyre's and also that there was a group; although rather small from what Ulquiorra had said; of vampyre hunters.

"Once they learned of Aizen's plan, they worked hard to defeat him," He had told him; "However they only stalled him, he considers them annoying bugs; basic trash,"

"Who leads this band of hunters?" Shinji had asked.

"Kurosaki," Orihime informed him much to Ulquiorra distain.

"Kurosaki," Shinji knew this man, or boy when he had known him, named after a berry, his hair had been red who had been in the same class as him in school; although many had first thought of him as a bully; since he had a habit of acting first without thinking; but he was anything but.

"He's not strong enough,"

"Heh," Shinji grinned; _Ichigo Kurosaki._

The two said nothing, but Ulquiorra could tell that Shinji was coming up with a plan; and he also knew that the vampyre hunter's would most likely be in their undead lives soon. However, regardless of that; he would stand by Shinji, unless it brought danger to Orihime, he would wait and see what would happen.


	4. Chapter 4

The next evening Shinji and his companions went out to hunt. It was always the same human's they were after, those that society failed to judge properly, the one's who managed to get away with such crimes that for most mortals would leave them with nightmares for the rest of their lives.

"I need to meet Kurosaki," Shinji told them as they gathered on a rooftop.

Orihime gasped in surprise, while Ulquiorra remained stoic.

"He could kill you,"

"Yup," Shinji grinned; "But he won't,"

"What makes you think that?" Orihime asked, wondering why the blonde would risk his undead life to meet a vampyre hunter.

"Because," He put his hand into his coat pocket and brought out a note which was addressed to him; "He's an old friend of mine,"

"We should…"

Shinji shook his head; "Aizen will be looking for you,"

"But…"

"He has a better chance of getting by without us," Ulquiorra told his Goddess; "We shall stay here, it is unlikely that they will make a wide search, not with a band of hunter's are in the city,"

"Be careful," Orihime told him.

Shinji grinned, nodding at her and quickly moved away; heading back to his home city and leaving his two new companions behind.

"He'll be fine," Orihime whispered softly as she watched him go.

"Who? Shinji or Kurosaki?" Ulquiorra inquired with a small smile.

Orihime smiled back; "Both,"

"I shall make sure that is so, just because Kurosaki won't attack, doesn't mean the other's won't," The raven haired vampyre raised his left hand, palm upwards and a small fruit bat appeared in the glow of green energy. It took to the sky without his master needing to say anything.

"Should there be an attack, I'll know and we can intervene quickly,"

Orihime placed her head on his shoulder, smiling still.

***

It took Shinji one night to return, he skipped meals to get back a lot faster; but without his companions it did make the journey seem longer.

He returned to Kisuke's old flat, which was now where Youriche was now living. The dark skinned woman was curled up on then sofa, not moving when Shinji walked in; of course the blonde was no fool, he knew full well that she knew of his arrival, probably when he had arrived in the city, he had no idea what her gifts truly were, but of course she didn't know much about his own gifts either.

"New friends?"

Shinji took a moment and smiled; "They aren't bad company,"

She stood up; "I see you got my message,"

"When…"

"Not yet," She smiled; "I didn't expect you to be so fast. I haven't spoken to him about you; however I am meeting him this afternoon,"

_Afternoon_ It reminded Shinji that she would meet Kurosaki during the day, when the sun in its golden, warm rays… He pushed that thought aside; he was finding it odd that after so many years the word was foreign to him and yet when it was spoken it reminded him of his mortal life, of being out during the day, with his family; with Hiyori. She was a rough, and at times violent, sister but they had their moment of family bonding too.

"So, perhaps tonight," Shinji said, moving the rest of that thought away.

"Perhaps," Youriche nodded; "I am hoping that they will listen to me,"

"What's Kurosaki like?"

She raised an eyebrow; "You went to school with him," She pointed out, confused by his question.

"I also went to the same school as Aizen," He countered.

""But you always knew there was something different about him…" She shook her head; "He's stubborn, but once the facts are laid out and the obvious choice and he'll go for it. He became a vampyre hunter due to an incident,"

Shinji just looked at her, waiting for her to continue on, but she shook her head. He remained silent, respecting the fact that she couldn't tell him; and then wondered;

"Why are you helping me?"

"Why?" She repeated in surprise; "Because you are my friend, and you were Kisuke's too,"

"No, no," He shook his head; "I mean, you are a _werecat_. Your clan won't be happy that you're helping a vampyre,"

Youriche closed her eyes for a moment; "Shinji, when you first left after being changed… Kisuke was distraught. He felt so guilty that he compared himself to the Doctor in Frankenstein that he created something that he shouldn't have. Part of him wanted to just… Curl up and die," She looked at him and then smiled sadly; "You were his best friend. You always gave him sound advice, not once did you give him praise without critic. It was because of that, that he continued to live," She paused, letting the information to sink in, then she spoke softly; "I'm doing this for him; and you. I know we were never that close before you were changed, but now everything has changed,"

Shinji nodded with a smile; "That's all I wanted," He felt dawn coming and walked to the door; "Thank you, Youriche,"

She remained silent, watching him leave and then turned to see the sun rise, a single tear slow made its way down her face.

"I wish you were here," She said softly, moving to the bathroom.

***

Youriche was dressed, wearing her black trousers and orange coat with her black scarf, she waited outside the coffee shop. She quickly spotted Kurosaki, who was tall, well built, and with red hair; he wore all black as did all the vampyre hunters that she had met so far, and like the rest he also wore a gold cross on a piece of string around his neck.

"Ms Youriche," He said as he walked over to her; his face grim.

"Ichigo," She smiled at him, easily dismissing the formalities that all of the hunter's seem to have.

"Why did you need to see me?" He asked as they began to walk.

"You are looking for Aizen,"

He stared at her; "Wh… What?"

"That's a yes then, have you met the first vampyre that Aizen created? Youriche asked, knowing the answer would be no.

"He keeps them locked up. I've only met two of them, and one of them we killed,"

She shook her head; "No, no, those are the later creations. I mean the very first,"

"You've caught…"

"No,"

"Then you know where…"

"Ichigo," She said firmly, and he became silent; "You know Aizen found Kisuke's notes and created his band of vampyre's. The very first was one of Kisuke's friends; Aizen had tricked him…" She trailed off, it wasn't her story to tell; "He will want to help you. If you let him,"

"Help us? We hunt and kill all vampyre's!"

"And what better way to one over Aizen than to use a vampyre?"

"We can't kill him," Ichigo stated dryly.

"No, they'll get immunity from it," Youriche told him firmly.

"I'll need to speak to the other's," Ichigo told her and began to turn away; "Wait, _they_?"

She nodded; "Shinji has companions,"

Ichigo stared at her; "Shinji? Hirako Shinji? The guy who's talent is to write backwards?"

"Yes,"

"But… Everyone thought he ran away… Why didn't…"

"He was the first; the _very _first, he couldn't exactly go up to his family like that, and he wanted to, but he knew he couldn't,"

Ichigo nodded, no family would be able to accept it, regardless of how open minded they were.

Hirako Shinji was the first?

That idiot was a vampyre?


	5. Chapter 5

The blonde vampyre waited patiently, there was still no word from Youriche is the vampyre hunters would actually met him. However he learned that Ichigo would.

"_Get this straight Hirako; this is me and not the hunters,"_

One was better than none he had thought.

The park was mutual territory for them; though Shinji had mused at all the people he had met there. He noticed out of the corner of his eye Ichigo, his long black coat billowing in the wind.

Shinji noted the cross, in life he had never been overly religious but now he wondered; did Holy objects affect him? Of course he knew better than to ask Ichigo, since the red head would probably demonstrate painfully on him.

"So, Aizen did change you," Ichigo commented, but kept his distance.

Shinji grinned, wondering if Kurosaki forgot that a vampyre was faster than that of a cheetah? But he took in the fact that Ichigo was older, no longer that 18 year old who was fresh out of high school, he was now a 40 year old man, with lines around his eyes, frown lines on his forehead… And a wedding band on his finger.

"You married!" Shinji exclaimed.

"Tch," Ichigo scowled, showing how he got those wrinkled in his forehead; "Did you think I wouldn't?"

"But… Who?"

"Rukia…"

The blonde laughed; "Figured. She whipped you good back then. How is she?"

"She's dead,"

Shinji looked at him in shock.

"One of Aizen's lackeys killed her. Probably thought that I would back away," Ichigo stated, the pain and anger was clear in his voice; "I want revenge Hirako, my children are all I have left. I won't rest until Aizen and his mad-cap experiments are all dead!"

Shinji remained silent; he couldn't add anything more to that.

"I'll help you," He stated and the other man nodded.

"Thank you. Youriche told me of your companions..."

He remained calm, but inside he was tense; "Oh, Ulquiorra and Orihime, they wanted to travel around," He smiled his unnerving grin.

"Huh, and they aren't a threat?"

"They feed on human blood, but neither kills. In fact Orihime loves humans," Shinji smiled and then noticed the look the human gave him; "She liked to watch them go about their lives,"

"And the other?"

The vampyre paused; Ulquiorra had told him that human's were trash; however he never killed them because of Orihime.

"To him they are food; but Orihime loves them so much that he would never kill them,"

"You make it sound like they are close,"

"Well, they are mates," Shinji stated and then added; "Pretty much married,"

"But…" Ichigo was shocked at this revelation; "They have no souls!"

"Ichigo, I have a soul. I know what is right and wrong, I know how it feels to lose a loved one. Just because…"

"You drink blood,"

"So does a leech,"

"You're comparing yourself to a leech," The human stated bluntly.

"Not exactly. A leech drinks blood to survive, as do others. Why are vampyre's seen as anything different?"

The hunter listened carefully and quietly.

"See, I have a soul, otherwise you wouldn't be talking to me in the way that you used to. You can _see _that I am still that same,"

"Let me meet them, this Ulquiorra and Orihime,"

Shinji looked at him.

"I don't believe the other hunters will want you with them, but I am going to use you Shinji,"

"We're using each other. For revenge,"

"Exactly,"

***

Ulquiorra sat on the ledge of the building, looking down on the small village, wondering if Shinji was actually going to come back and when they would get to go back. It had been over a week and although his seeker hadn't found anything to make them worried, the fact that Shinji had been gone for so long without word was.

"_What if…" Orihime would start once they woke to find the blonde had still not returned._

"_Sh,"_

"_But…" She began to protest, but he had managed to calm her mind._

"What if…" Orihime began again, after feeding.

"I doubt Aizen realizes that Shinji is there, much less that he would go out of his way to catch him. They have those hunter's to deal with. Besides Shinji has always been one that Aizen wasn't sure if he was alive or dead,"

"Those hunters…"

"Shinji has a gift, as we do,"

She had blinked, forgetting that Shinji was likely to have a gift.

"We've never seen it, and that intrigues me," Ulquiorra had mused.

"I'm just worried, what if…"

"What ifs are meaningless. Aizen has those vampyre hunters to deal with first,"

"And those hunters have made a deal with me,"

Orihime turned to see Shinji walking to them from the sky; he wasn't flying nor was he just floating, it seemed almost a natural thing for the blonde to do, walk down from the sky as if walking down a flight of stairs.

"You're okay!" She exclaimed.

"A deal?" Ulquiorra questioned.

"Worried?" Shinji grinned at Orihime and then looked at the other vampyre; "Yes, with one Ichigo Kurosaki,"

"He's…" Orihime just stared at him; "He's the one who killed Yami…"

"That is of no consequence," Ulquiorra stated.

"He was…"

"An idiot,"

"You are going to work with…."

"We," Shinji corrected her, surprised at how she was behaving; he had never seen her look so afraid before.

"We are going to work… We?" She looked at him and then her mate and then back to Shinji.

"Yeup,"

"This Ichigo will kill us the moment he see's us," Ulquiorra pointed out.

"Nah, I already told him about you guys,"

"And should he change his mind?"

"He won't. He always keeps his word," Shinji informed them; "Trust me, he's the only one who will work with us,"

"We already know why they won't. Why is he different?"

"He's…" Shinji paused and looks at them both; "He wants revenge,"

"Why?" Orihime asked.

"One of Aizen's vamps killed his wife,"

Orihime said nothing, but she took her mates hand; unable to imagine the pain the vampyre hunter must have felt.

"Grimmjow," Ulquiorra stated.

"He did it?" Orihime looked at her mate in surprise.

"It was when you were being turned, they were both hunter's and Grimmjow distracted them. Once it was complete I stopped him from killing the children,"

"In front of the children?" Orihime was shocked, her eyes wide in horror.

"They were still in the house, asleep," He looked at Shinji; "There is no guarantee that he'll be calm around me,"

"He might not remember you," Shinji pointed out.

"Let me talk to him," Orihime said firmly.

"If he remembers," Shinji told her softly; "Revenge can cloud the mind,"

"Be that as it may, we still need to be careful," Ulquiorra stated and noted that Shinji stared at him; "What is it?"

"When you turned Orihime?"

"Yes,"

"You said Aizen…"

"I also said that we were weak-willed. Aizen saved us from a final death, so we repaid him,"

"Shinji," The female vampyre spoke; "If you had seen it, you would understand,"

The blonde shook his head; "I guess it is Aizen, he's persuasive," He said bitterly.

"You've never made another," Ulquiorra stated.

"No," Shinji knew he didn't need to say anything, but he did. He never wanted another vampyre to be made by his own fangs; it was something he couldn't do.

"One day…"

Shinji grinned at his two companions; "I'll find my Bella,"

"We should go," The pale vampyre told them as he scanned the area.

Orihime nodded and they both looked at Shinji.

"Let's go," He moved quickly, away from the city and his companions followed him with ease.


	6. Chapter 6

Orihime called to him: "Shinji, stop,"

The two males stopped and looked at her, surprised that she would want to stop now, before they reached the city.

"Do we have a place to stay?"

Shinji grinned and nodded; "Yea, Youriche's place,"

"A werecat is helping?" Ulquiorra questioned him.

"She's a friend," Shinji told him and looked at both of them; "Look, right now we all want the same thing, to stop Aizen,"

The blonde knew too well how Hollywood films get it so wrong; vampyres' were supposed to be mortal; or in this case immortal, enemies with weres; luckily for him though, Aizen already had gotten onto the wrong side of Youriches clan.

"She knows of us?" Orihime asked quietly, unsure how to feel of someone knowing about her and her mate.

"Yea, and give her a reason to trust you," He said teasingly, knowing fully well that the werecat would trust the two, just because he did.

"She's the goddess of flash," Ulquiorra stated, and the other male raised an eyebrow; "Her speed. She's faster than us vampyre's,"

"Huh, never raced her," Shinji told him with a shrug.

"If she's your friend, we'll prove ourselves," Orihime told him, oblivious to the look her mate was giving her.

Shinji nodded and once more they moved on, heading towards a set direction of a mansion.

The outside looked wasted, overgrown grass and bushes left to grow however they see fit, most people thought that no one lived there, due to the rumors of it being haunted. However that was what Youriche wanted, she started the rumor herself, to keep people away from the mansion. It also meant that any vampyre who came across her land would be spotted quickly and killed. Which was a lot; and they were all linked to Aizen.

Opening the heavy wooden doors, Shinji beckoned the two inside and they saw the exact opposite of the outside. The mansion inside was clean and tidy, and to Orihime it was comfortable.

"Shinji!" A dark skinned woman called, walking towards them; but before any of the vampyre's could move a pale skinned woman with short black hair had a sword in one hand and pointed it at Orihime.

"Soi Fon," Youriche said.

"They are Aizen's…" The woman called Soi Fon began; her eyes narrowed at the three vampyre's but were completely focused on the one her blade was next to.

"I told you already, they are…"

"They deserve death,"

"Shinji's friends,"

Soi Fon turned to look at the blonde vampyre, she glared at him, the hatred burned in her eyes; "They should all…"

"Enough,"

"We can't trust them,"

"Shinji has been my friend since…"

"Since Kisuake died," Soi Fon finished for the other woman; "And you haven't been yourself. They are vampyre's, they'll kill you when your back is turned,"

"Actually, the amount of times you have turned your back to me Youriche you should have died about…." Shinji joked, counting off his fingers.

"Soi Fon, I don't need your advice," Youriche said firmly, ignoring Shinji's joke; "I need to speak to them alone," She looked at the defiant woman fiercely; "Now,"

The dark haired woman flinched and left, but continued to glare at the three vampyre's as she sheathed her sword.

"She's too protective," Youriche grinned once the door was closed.

"She cares for you," Orihime pointed out.

"If she does that again," Ulquiorra finally spoke; "I will kill her,"

"You won't catch her," Youriche said easily, crossing her arms.

"Her heart will be,"

The werecat looked at the pale vampyre, unsure of the threat and then looked to Shinji who just shrugged.

"Look, Aizen isn't making vampyre's. He's letting them run lose and creating their own,"

"They've been doing it for some time," Orihime added, holding her hand out of her mate to take.

"It's worse, some of them are mad," The werecat told them, carefully watching the other vampyre take the red heads hand into his own, and noticed that she became pale; "What's wrong?"

"It's normally a selective process," Ulquiorra explained, his thumb rubbing the back of Orihime's hand; "We would find a human that we like, and watched them. Over time we could decide if they can adapt or if they are worth the risk," His mate smiled slightly; "Then the process is finalized. This… This can only be one thing,"

"And that is?" Soi Fon appeared behind the werecat, but Youriche didn't appear to mind.

"A message,"

"A message?" Youriche repeated; "Of what?"

"Not a message, a warning," Shinji finally spoke; "To get you and the Hunter's to back off,"

"How… Awful…" Orihime looked at the two women; "Do… do you give them peace?"

Soi Fon was taken aback at the question, and it was from a vampyre!

"Yes, they are at peace," The dark skinned woman told her.

"It must have scared them…" She said and once more Ulquiorra stroked her hand.

Soi Fon raised an eyebrow, but Shinji didn't care to comment and Youriche got the jist of the relationship between the two.

"We have to stop this," Shinji said.

"But…"

"Soi Fon, Kisuake created the original plan for a vampyre, I can't do nothing,"

The woman looked away and sighed; "As you wish,"

"Ichigo needs to meet…" Shinji began and noticed Youriche grinning; "What?"

"He never told you,"

"Told me what?"

"Ichigo, or more to the point his group of Hunters, already have a vampyre working among them," Soi Fon stated, her voice full of distain.

"What?!" He exclaimed and his companions looked at the women.

"Tch, she's a vampyre Hunter and got turned. Ichigo should have just killed her,"

"Who changed her?" Ulquiorra asked them.

"Some vampyre with a birth mark over their nose,"

"Nel!" Orihime exclaimed, but her excitement diminished due to the glare Soi Fon sent her way.

"She was chosen by Nel," Ulquiorra stated.

"Ichigo couldn't kill her, and he wouldn't let anyone else do it, am I right?" Shinji asked them, his eye already knowing the answer.

"Someone else to help," Orihime said softly and Soi Fon scoffed.

"She maybe a vamp, but that doesn't mean she'll like you,"

Shinji turned to the werecat; "Tell Ichigo we'll met him here,"

"And to bring the vampyre," Ulquiorra added, ignoring the glare he was getting from the other woman, or the confused look from Orihime.

***

"Bring her?!" Ichigo exclaimed as he met up with Youriche at the park.

"Yup,"

"But… Why?" Ichigo asked, confused; "She'd be more likely to kill them than…"

"It's a risk they are willing to take," She told him; "They want to met her,"

"Miyone…"

"Just tell her what I said, they want to met her,"

Ichigo sighed in defeat and nodded.

Miyone was a vampyre and a Vampyre Hunter; but she had met Ichigo at college when she was still a mortal. However she remained distant, the reason was due to her being a Vampyre Hunter, but she did try to have something of a normal life.

Once Rukia learned of them, she wanted to know more, although Ichigo didn't believe in it at all.

Then, a year later, Miyone was attacked, and just when the vampyre was about to pick her up Rukia had arrived to scare the creature off. She had been too late, Miyone had changed. The next night she was in need of blood, and none of the Hunter's wished to give her any, but Renji, the red haired tattooed man had brought in animals that he had trapped for her; although it barely quenched her thirst. But the others were arguing over her fate with Rukia watching in silence, wishing that she had arrived earlier.

"Why do you want to kill her?" Ichigo had spoken up, feeling all eyes on him; "This is your chance, and you have a vampyre, make use of her. She'll have a gift, from what I have seen and heard all vampyre's appear to have a gift of some sort, and that could make us stronger!"

Unknown to him at the time, his speech made him sound like a man who knew what he was talking about; almost like a leader.

Miyone had told them before that the Hunter's never had a leader; however they agreed that the vampyre's must be stopped.

Youriche hadn't been part of them, she had dealt with vampyre's the same way she does now; but she was known by the Hunter's as one not to mess with.

Ichigo prepared himself, knowing Miyone wouldn't appreciate this.

***

Shinji; along with Orihime and Ulquiorra waited by the statue of Yamato. They didn't wait long, Ichigo appeared wearing his long leather coat and the silver cross, looking rather determined and they spotted her, a woman with dark brown hair and grey eyes, scowling as they got closer.

"Hirako," Ichigo greeted the blonde and nodded at the other two; "This is Miyone,"

Orihime felt relieved, Ichigo didn't recognize her mate.

The brown haired woman glared at them all and Orihime carefully looked at her, noting the eyes being full of hate; or was it jealousy? After all, all she knew was that vampyre's were hostile; and part of her began to wonder what this vampyre would have been like if Nel had managed to take her. Would she be any different?

"We have an idea to stop Aizen," Shinji informed them.

"What is it?" Ichigo asked him.

"Orihime," He indicated to the female vampyre; "She can go back to Aizen…"

"What?" Miyone finally spoke, in disbelief.

"And say that Ulquiorra is dead, killed by one of you guy's,"

"Then what?" Ichigo asked, not sure where the plan was going.

"Aizen is fond of her, with her being upset…" Ulquiorra trailed off.

"He'll bring the fight to us," Shinji added.

"Not straight away," The pale vampyre admitted; "He'll want to make sure there is a plan,"

"Never was the type to rush into a fight," Shinji commented.

"When?" Ichigo asked.

"In a few nights time," Ulquiorra told him.

Miyone looked at Orihime, surprised to see blood tears falling, and even more so to find that the pale vampyre had taken her hand and pulled her away from them.

"Will she be okay?" Ichigo asked and the female vampyre looked at him in surprise.

Shinji just nodded; "Ulquiorra wouldn't ask her to do this otherwise," He then looked at Miyone and grinned; "You're a _Vampyre _Hunter huh?"

"What of it?" She asked, unfazed which was unusual considering Shinji's grin had a habit of unnerving many; but considering how often she had to deal with vampyres she was probably a lot harder to scare.

"Well, you've done nothing," Shinji stated, noticing not only Ichigo's fist clenching but also how Miyone's went to a stake inside her jacket; "What I mean is…" He raised his hands in surrender; "You kill them, but more come,"

"It's to get Aizen…" She started but he shook his head; "We have your plan now,"

"Yea, luckily enough," He said and looked at the mates, sitting on a bench, Orihime was no longer crying; "Sweet isn't it? All this and they found each other,"

She just looked at him, all she wanted to was get away from them; all she wanted to do was kill them.

The blonde grinned once more, as if he knew exactly what she was fighting and not about to let her go easily.

It was a challenge; _try to kill me._

She looked into his eyes and took the challenge.


	7. Chapter 7

She felt her body being pined to the ground once again; defeated by Hirako and still not sure how he managed it.

"You were closer that time," He commented, backing away from her so she could get back up.

When they first started he had held his hand out to her, but after so many times of her ignoring it, he concluded that he shouldn't bother.

"Not close enough," She muttered, but her grey eyes still looked determined while Shinji shook his head.

"You're being human,"

Miyone stared at him, not sure what he meant.

"You're a vampyre, but you still fight like a human," He paused and scratched his ear; "Not that it's surprising, you do work with humans who hate us, and if you did anything that they don't see as being _normal_ they would kill you on the spot," He told her, cooling down the murderous glare she had sent him; "But to protect everyone you _need_ that vampyre gift,"

"I don't need a lecture from you," She hissed at him, knowing that what he said was true, but unwilling to take any of it on board.

"Attack me," He grinned at her, his arms wide open.

She did, she pounced, drawing her dagger; but something was off, she should have stabbed his shoulder but instead she was on the other side of him, he was completely unharmed. Growling she turned and tried once more, but once again she missed and had her back to him.

"What are you doing?" She demanded to know, _is this his gift at work?_

"All vampyres' have a gift," Shinji began to explain; "Orihime has fairies that protect her, or even the people she wants to protect. Ulquiorra has a gift over bats; he can control them and even create them if he needs to,"

She raised an eyebrow;" And you?"

"Heh, backwards, forwards; up, down; left, right," He looked seriously at her; "It confuses and disorientates. An inverted world. You're still chained to them," _Them _being the Vampyre Hunters.

"Shut up!" Miyone exclaimed; "Stop trying to confuse me. I just…"

"You can break it, 'cos you sure can't outsmart it," He told her calmly; "You hate vampyre's, but to defeat Aizen, you need to embrace it. It's scary, I know all about that. But you need to trust us,"

Shinji held his hand out to her, it was her own choice; to protect to the best of her abilities that she had, or let everyone die because of her pride?

It was an obvious choice, but the cost?

He noticed her weariness; "I promise, you won't lose it,"

Closing her eyes she remembered what Ichigo had told her what it had felt like to met his friend again;

"_His soul was there, he was the exact same idiot that he had been before it happened,"_

The choice scared her, but she knew Aizen had to be stopped and she wasn't alone.

Her hand grasped that of Hirako's and he closed his own around it; he grinned at her;

"Ready?"

_Was something wrong with her?_ Miyone thought as she watched Orihime and Ulquiorra together, just contently holding each other as they looked down at the variety of drunks moving around the square.

"How is it?" Shinji appeared beside her, startling her.

She quickly covered it up, but she saw him grinning and knew he wasn't fooled; "Maybe I don't have a gift,"

Orihime looked over at them; "That's…"

"You are not working hard enough," Ulquiorra stated bluntly, and ignored the glare the brown haired vampyre sent him; "You are too attached to these humans. You need to let go,"

"Why can't it be possible for me to not have a gift?"

"Because if that was true, I don't think I would have one," Shinji told her, once more he looked serious, having to remember that night when he was turned, the first vampyre.

"Besides," Orihime moved away from that subject; "You were created by Nel,"

"Innocent and foolish," Her mate said in reference to the vampyre who changed her.

Miyone shook her head, not wanting to learn anything about this Nel, it was easier to hate something that she couldn't personally identify with.

"She used to be able to shape shift; although it was only people. But right now she can only change into her child-self," Orihime was about to start rambling on when her mate placed a finger on her lips.

"Hush," He turned to the other two; "At will she can change from adult to child, and since there is no such thing as a child vampyre…"

"The sooner you learn your gift the faster you can put it to use," Shinji told her.

Orihime carefully looked at the female vampyre; "I think Miyone needs a break,"

At her saying that Shinji carefully regarded the newest addition to there group; it was obvious to all of them that Miyone needed blood, the bags that she was given twice a night was not helping her, if anything that was probably another reason why her gift wouldn't reveal it's self.

"Go feed," He said as he walked back towards Yourichi's home.

Orihime smiled and reached out to pull Miyone along.

"My…" She began, indicating that she had to go back to the mansion.

"Those bags are useless," Ulquiorra stated bluntly; "You hunger for human blood, fresh and alive; but those… _humans_ keep you in check," Orihime smiled at him, pleased that he kept himself in check, she was certain that he would have said _pieces of trash_.

"No," Miyone began to shrug Orihime off her arm, her grey eyes defiant.

"You have no choice,"

"No,"

"Others will die…" He trailed off; Miyone had changed into a small ball of light that quickly left them and went towards the mansion.

"That…" Orihime began, looking surprised.

"Her gift," He told her gently and she just looked at him.

Shinji had managed to make it look like he was heading back, but really he wanted to keep an eye on how things were progressing.

He saw everything, her distress at the thought of having to drink human blood and refusing to partake in it. Now he had to find her; although he knew she was defenseless, she had just manifested her gift, and that would have made her weak.

He moved quickly to see where the ball of light had fallen.

_Great._ He thought to himself, deciding that the trees would be a better vantage point to look for her.

Miyone had crashed into the ground, he hair full of twigs and leave and her clothes covered in dirt. Not that she cared, she knew what had happened; as she curled up on the tree stump, and wondered how she managed it. How could her refusing to drink fresh human blood and then ended up here?

Everything she was, a Vampyre Hunter, facing death on a nightly bases and now… Look at her; she was afraid of her Vampyric gift. It was pathetic.

"Just because you're a vampyre doesn't mean you can enter private property," A familiar voice hissed from the shadows.

Miyone didn't look in the direction the voice came from; "Soi Fon," She said dully.

"I should kill you now, claim it as an act of defense and not realizing it was you until it was too late," The pale woman walked towards her with a stake in hand.

"But you won't,"

Soi Fon narrowed her eyes; "Oh?"

"You would have done it by now," The vampyre stated and tensed up; she knew full well that Soi Fon was too easy to annoy, and she was right.

Soi Fon attacked, and although weakened by her new Gift, Miyone managed to how the woman off.

"Soi Fon!" A male voice shouted over to them.

The two stopped to look and see Ichigo struggling to get through the over grown grass.

"What the hell is going on?" He demanded to know and looked at the vampyre; "Why are you out here? Shinji said that he was training you," He looked at her curiously, wondering why she looked so roughed up when it was obvious that the fight had only just started.

"I am," Shinji told him and jumped down from the tree he had been in to land next to the pale skinned woman; "It's interesting huh Miyone?"

"Interesting?" She repeated, feeling herself getting a lot weaker and knowing that if anyone should attack her now she couldn't defend herself.

She tensed up as she felt someone put an arm around her shoulders; "Got you," Shinji said quietly, so that only she could hear, picking her up he turned to the two; "She needs time with her kind now,"

Upon hearing those words, Miyone tried to open her eyes, but they refused to obey.

"Miyone, listen," Shinji spoke quietly, even though she was sure they were far enough away from Soi Fon and Ichigo; "It's fine to be scared, I know that, but I don't want you around them now, at least not until you can learn more about your gift. You need to be a vampyre, you need…"

"No," She whispered hoarsely.

"Human blood,"

"No," Her voice became stronger and she could feel her body trying to use the gift, but instead of getting away she passed out.

"Right now, once a night," He said softly, moving quickly back to his old apartment.

The next night Orihime clung to her mate; "I can't…"

"You can," Ulquiorra took her hands into his own; "You have to. You are Aizen's favorite; he even tried all your human food concoctions…"

"But…"

"And to save others," Ulquiorra continued, knowing full well if he stopped she would start rambling on; "We have each other, but Ichigo has lost his wife, Hirako lost his mortality and his friend…."

She shook her head; "All right, but… Be careful,"

A small smirk appeared on his lips as he nodded.


	8. Chapter 8

The hazel eyed vampyre left the room of his apartment to be greeted by a black cat.

"She's finally…"

"Eh, Youriche, why are you like that? Why can't you come here like you normally do?"

"Shinji, it's coming to the full moon," She told him, not feeling the need to explain further.

The blonde looked at her and then began to nod, before remembering that he had cut off her question; "What were you asking?"

"Miyone, has she finally drunk fresh blood?"

"No, we have managed to get extra blood bags," He told her, crossing his arms and leaned against the wall opposite to the cat.

"She's scared," Youriche looked towards the bed room door, her nose smelling the emotion clearly, over-riding everything else.

"I guess its cause she has to live with us. Doesn't feel natural to her, after all she's probably spent most of her life killing vampyre's and with us she can't,"

"But…"

"We're an exception to the rule, she doesn't know if she will lose her soul should she drink human blood. There have been plenty of vampyre's that she has killed that probably didn't; but I'm guessing the one's who changed them didn't really care to much about them, just wanted them to be turned and scare the humans,"

The cat looked at him and then at the door again; "Do we really need her? She could be more of a problem to us than not; and her gift…"

"We need her. Her gift is useful," He told her and noticed the look she gave him; "I know, the Hunter's won't approve if she moved them away from the battle if they were injured. But I was thinking of Orihime; you know Ulquiorra is the one who is going to help Miyone now right?"

"Ah, I see. You are doing this for your companions," The cat nodded in understanding.

"Yea, I am. This could be a new start,"

A few nights later and Orihime was gone, left by herself after a long goodbye to her mate; back to Aizen with the lie of Ulquiorra's death to spread to the group.

The pale vampyre watched the gray eyed vampyre as she looked at the human's around her while they walked through the town center.

"Self-harming won't take it away," He commented; "You are only making yourself weak,"

"I can't," She told him, the same words she used every time this subject was brought up.

Ulquiorra knew all too well why she was doing this, but still didn't understand the logic of it; of course he had considered that perhaps there wasn't any logic at all.

"You are weak. Your own gift can only be used once a night, which won't help anyone,"

"It's useless..."

"To orb?" He asked and she nodded; "No, if you gain more energy you could do it more often, most likely you could go anywhere in the world, with the possibility of taking another along,"

Miyone raised an eyebrow; "Why are you trying to help? Hirako told me that you were quieter than usual now that Orihime is gone,"

At the mention of his mates name his eyes were filled with longing.

"She was like this as well," He admitted.

Miyone let the information sink in, Orihime did the same thing, which was why she wanted to help; now that she was gone her mate choose to take up the cause.

However, their reason's for refusing to drink human blood were different; Orihime loves humans, while Miyone wants to keep her soul. Now she wished the red haired vampyre was here to ramble on, to give her odd points on such a topic instead of her serious mate being here.

"But you and..." She began.

"Not at first," He calmly informed her; "She fought in her own quiet way,"

Miyone smiled, seeing a light in the pale vampyre's eyes as he spoke of his mate.

"How goes it?" Shinji asked as Ulquiorra was about to rest for the day.

"Slow," He turned to look at the other; "It will be a slow process. Orihime was the same, but we don't have time,"

Shinji looked at him and felt those green eyes pierce him; "Wait, me?"

"Who better? You annoy her, you challenge her, she will be unlikely to show her fear..."

"But she has. Why can't you..." Shinji tried to argue.

"She knows me, of Orihime and you get under her skin, I don't," There was a small smile on his pale lips that Shinji didn't like.

"But..."

"I could, but I would need time. I wear people down, but they still have spark, I make them see what is in front of them. Our time, however, is precious, we don't know exactly when he'll strike,"

Reluctantly Shinji agreed, they didn't know when Aizen would attack, and they needed to be at full strength; "All right,"

"Just don't antagonize her too much,"

The blonde just rolled his eyes.


	9. Chapter 9

Orihime was in her room, the one she lived in before she realized who Ulquiorra was to her. She had been warmly welcomed back by the whole clan, and was asked many questions on her where she had been.

"I need to see Mr Aizen," Was all she said, the tears streamed her face that caused the others to look at her in surprise.

Aizen came to her not long after her request had been made, carefully looking at her as he handed her a cup of tea; "Orihime, where is..." Before he could finish the question she sobbed loudly, her hands went to her face.

"We... We were out, feeding, I just wanted to see some humans... But the... Hunters..."

The brown haired man wasn't overly emotional, he wasn't about to comfort the female vampyre; but he was patient, letting her continue in her own time.

"He... He told me to go... That he would delay them... Then the one with orange hair... He... He..."

"Ulquiorra is dead," Aizen murmured.

"Yes," She looked at him, the blood tears continuing to fall, though she tried to wipe them away.

He looked at the girl, the one that Ulquiorra had finally chosen after a long time of looking; the one whose gift was extremely unusual, not only does it protect, but also to heal all wounds. With her kind heart, caring nature, she was unusual among the other vampyre's in the clan. It was the sole reason why he favored her above the rest.

"We'll get you blood," He told her gently and left the room.

As he began to walk down the hall he looked at the white haired man who was leaning against the wall, his eyes closed as he began to speak;

"That can't be true,"

"It's true, Ulquiorra was killed by Ichigo Kurosaki,"

"But how?" He turned to face the brown eyes man.

"I can't ask her that Gin, she is too troubled to be asked that; it could kill her," Aizen told him, who knew full well that it was due to her gift that Orihime wasn't being questioned to an inch of her undead life.

"So, what do we do?" Gin asked as they walked down the hall.

"She is hurting, her mate won't return to her, and I have never seen any of the vampyre's like this," Aizen admitted, but his eyes were hard; "She'll want revenge, and so do I. Ulquiorra was rare among the rest, we'll never get another like him; but with him saving Orihime in the process..."

"Honoring him," Gin caught on and grinned; "Odd of you,"

"Perhaps, but we appear to have been too lenient on these Hunters, they need to learn their place," Aizen smirked; "With Ulquiorra's death, it has made things a bit easier,"

"And what of the werecats?"

"Right now, I am sure Ichigo Kurosaki has band them all together. We'll just need to kill all of them,"

"All of them? _All_ of the werecats?" Gin double checked that he was hearing right.

"Yes, why? Were you after one?" He asked, curious at the man's surprise.

"Yourichi, she's such a fighter and yet..." He trailed off, not sure exactly what he was trying to get at; or perhaps he didn't want Aizen to know exactly what he was getting at.

Aizen just nodded; "She is different from the rest of her clan, but she isn't patient. We are,"

Gin nodded and noticed where they were heading to; "You are going to tell them? Now?"

"Yes, to explain why we are now at war, and to make sure they kill _everyone_, the Hunters and whoever they feed off of,"

The white haired man made no further comment as they entered the chamber with six main vampyre's. The perfect creations. Thinking upon this, he wondered... The very first came into being when he was just a child and Aizen was a teenager.

_Is he actually dead?_ Gin wondered as Aizen managed to get all the vampyre's in the room thirsty for blood and violence; which was due to Aizen finally letting them off the leash.

The perfect vampyre's were ecstatic at the announcement that they could kill who they wanted, whenever they wanted.

As the room cleared, Gin looked at Aizne; "I think the Hunter's will get the message,"

"Hmm, and they'll know that we won't take it,"

XXX

Ulquiorra woke to the sound of silence, he slowly realized after scanning the room that Orihime was back within the clan.

_I thought something was missing..._ He thought to himself, slowly rising and leaving the cold room, until something caught his eye; _A toy._ He picked it up, staring at the teddy bear that was probably older than he was... Sniffing the you he caught a scent; _It was her's... This toy that she had as a human, that she kept with her..._

He looked at the bear, as if that would become Orihime, he shook his head and carefully placed the bear back onto the dresser.

Leaving the room he came across Soifon who glared at him, although it didn't have any effect on him, he didn't really care much for the werecat who seemed to be forever at Youirche's heels.

He then spotted Shinji who looked ready to tear his hair out; he suppressed a smirk, he'd never seen the blonde man look stressed out before..

"Hey there Ulqui," Shinji greeted the other, running his hands through his own hair, evidently trying to calm himself.

The pale vampyre raised an eyebrow at his new nickname; "Trouble with Miyone,"

"Meh, trouble I could deal with. She's refusing to be one of us," Shinji sighed; "I might be able to get under her skin, but she's a stubborn bitch,"

"Then we will need to resort with desperate measures," He informed the other, who just looked at him in question; "We won't give her any of the blood bags,"

Shinji was startled; "Woha! We don't..."

"Even you know how important this battle is, we _need _her skill, and we need it to actually work of her own command,"

"But... To deprive her of blood bags... She'll go mad..." Shinji told him, unsure exactly what the other vampyre was wanting, unless Ulquiorra had truly lost his mind now that Orihime was gone.

"She won't. Trust me, I won't let her become such a creature. But this is a last resort, we shall need to remove her from the area and take her to the grave yard just outside the city,"

XXX

Miyone looked around herself, not sure what the two vampyre's were up to, although she didn't have a choice in the matter of whether or not she wanted to go with them.

"_Just go with them, what's the worst that could happen?" Ichigo had asked her as they stood out in the clear moonlight._

"_Plenty, you knew Shinji from before," She reminded him and he laughed; "Ichigo, I don't..."_

"_I know you don't, but you need to. This isn't just about us Hunter's any more, it's about everyone,"_

With that logic Miyone couldn't refuse.

In her pondering she didn't noticing that Ulquiorra had moved behind her and attacked. She didn't have time to orb away, his attacks were too vicious and quick, she glanced to the side to see if Shinji would come to her aid, only to see him bring out some chains and a needle before she passed out.

"Quickly," Ulquiorra said to the blonde, who injected the female and then they wrapped the chains around her.

"How are these going to hold her?" Shinji asked, he may have been the first, but there was a lot he didn't know, mainly because he didn't actually want to learn first hand.

"The inject you just gave her will make her weak, it will also mean that she will crave blood faster, give a night or two and we should see her so desperate for blood that she won't care if it is a human," Ulquiorra informed him as he clicked the chains together.

"Now it's a waiting game," Shinji muttered.

"Yes, now we wait and hope the clan hasn't made their move yet,"

XXX

Hope was needed, because Aizen had sent out his first lot of vampyres into the city for the Hunter's to deal with. Gin just looked at the brown haired man, not sure what he was trying to do.

"Why send out the weakest? Surely you want this over with...?"

Aizen smirked; "Actually I'm going to wear the Hunter's down, each attack coming every so often until they are too weak and tired to fight,"

Gin nodded; "And what of Kurosaki?"

"Oh, I have made sure they all know not to kill him,"

"And if they do?"

Aizen glanced at Gin, his eyes cold; "They'll die in his place,"


	10. Chapter 10

Ulquiorra had gone ahead with Miyone, managing to drug her blood bags.

Right now Shinji was in a meeting with Yourichi and Ichigo over the attacks on the werecats that had occurred the night before, just before dawn.

"It was risky," Yourichi commented thoughtfully, her mind managed to keep the thought of all the people that she knew being dead, only just. Once this meeting was over she would have her time to mourn them, if just for a few precious moments.

"A warning," Shinji stated sitting on the dark purple sofa, he was on edge, wanting to leave as soon as but knowing that he couldn't, not when this had happened, not when Yourichi was upset.

"They know..." Ichigo began.

"Aizen isn't stupid. He knew you would be out trying to avenge Kisuke,"

Yourichi nodded in agreement to Shinji's statement, she leaned against the wall, he arms crossed as she looked at the two men in front of her; just wondering if she _should_ retreat, if backing away was the best thing for her clan.

"We need to take the fight to him," Ichigo decided, looking at them; "Those vamp's are attacking everyone who is out at night. There's not enough of us to stop them, we need to get to the source and stop it there,"

Shinji caught her eye, they both agreed with what Ichigo was saying but they were also weary.

"We'll need to be careful, we don't know exactly who he has ailed himself with," She told them gently; "If we fail... This could start an all out war,"

"But his focus will be on us, he'll want to just take us lot out first before he deals with the other's," Ichigo argued.

"Don't forget Gin," Shinji added as the two just looked at him.

"Who?"

"Gin?"

"Gin," He nodded; "Aizen had him help out in my... _change_," He tried not to sound overly bitter, but it was hard, too hard. Although he liked his vampyric life, enjoyed it even, there were plenty of times when he wondered; _what if_.

"The fox like kid," She said softly in realization as Ichigo raised an eyebrow; "Gin isn't..."

"What is he?" Ichigo asked.

"He's something... A definite were-something..."

"So he is a were?"

Yourichi looked at him; "We don't know exactly what he is. With no ties and the ability to lose any of the spies that we have on him, we know very little,"

Shinji pondered for a moment; "Ulquiorra might be able to help. He's been a bit down for the past few nights now,"

"How can you tell?" Ichigo asked, surprised that his old school friend could tell when Ulquiorra was unhappy; heck that pale vampyre freaked him out every time they were in a room together.

"I'll ask him," Shinji ignored that comment as he looked at the were-cat who nodded.

"The more help prior to this major attack the better,"

Both men were well aware of how this recent attack had shaken Yourichi, it was one thing to have a hand full of vampyre's start a fight against a few werecats; but a full frontal assault just before the sunrise? It was unheard of.

The warning was crystal clear: Back off or these attacks will keep coming.

Ichigo had already told her that she didn't have to remain with them, if she felt her clans well being was at risk. However, Yourichi had been thinking, all day and through out this meeting. She made up her mind, she wanted to avenge Kisuke, but now her clan would want revenge for the killing of their kin.

Of course, this meant tighter restrictions would be put upon them if they did remain part of the fight against Aizen; they wouldn't be able to go out at night, which would be extremely difficult given the Full Moon only a day away.

Ichigo stood up and spoke; "Let me know what your answer is Yourichi," He left the room and she turned to Shinji.

"I'm _not _giving up," Her amber eyes were focused and he could clearly see her own thirst for revenge.

"I know,"

"Why didn't he attack me directly?"

"He's probably weary of you," Shinji said with a shrug, he didn't think it was completely true. Aizen was very smart, he knew if he attacked Yourichi he would have a bigger battle with the werecats, they would be out for undead blood. He glanced out of the window, the moon not in sight with a thick blanket of cloud covering it; "We all know it's a clear warning to you,"

"Aizen is nothing more than a coward," She spat, having a sudden desire to unleash her rage there and then.

"No," Shinji told her and she looked at him, startled that he of all people would say such a thing. He smiled sadly at her; "He's no coward, you know this. He just doesn't want to get his hands dirty," _Yet_ was the word he omitted from that sentence, he knew full well who Aizen was, he just hadn't been able to realize his plan back then but now?

Now he was more clued up, and he could get his own change of revenge.

XXX

"You wish for me to spy on Gin?" Ulquiorra clarified and Shinji nodded, the two were at the outskirts of the city, having been agreed they would meet up every other night, provided no problems occurred; "Sadly I must decline,"

"Wh..." He was surprised at the other, that wasn't the answer he expected from Ulquiorra.

The other knew what his question was going to be; "Gin isn't someone you can spy on. In fact anyone who did usually ended up dead," He gave a small smirk; "And since I am supposed to be dead, I think we should give that a miss,"

Shinji nodded, if Gin learned Ulquiorra wasn't dead, he could either kill him for real or he could capture and take him back to Aizen and then all the work they had done would be for nothing.

"Gin's a were?"

"Yes. The rumor had been that he was a werefox,"

"You don't believe it?"

"Actually I believe that he was indeed a werefox, but I think Aizen has changed him into something else," He paused to look at the blonde carefully; "Kisuke Urahara had many ideas and notes on different theories. Aizen's first real experiment that he took from Kisuke was about were's. Of course creating were's was hard work, so vampyre's was used instead, although he is still to create the perfect vampyre,"

Shinji felt the blood of his dinner run cold. Urahara had notes on were's, most likely werecats; Aizen would have know about the times of the month even if Gin hadn't said anything to him about it. Gin would have been the first victim, but he must have been willing since he is still with the man?

"I thought so," Ulquiorra finally spoke and Shinji just looked at him; "The only werecat that he knew was Yourichi," He paused for a moment; "That is why I believe that Gin is both fox and cat; which will mean trouble for your friend,"

The blonde nodded, knowing that they had to be _very _careful. Gin had just been a kid when he had been changed, but if he was a werefox he would have been strong, but a combination of fox and cat? He knew what Yourichi and Soi Fon could be capable of, he'd seen what Soi Fon was able to do against Miyone, but Gin was something else.

They couldn't fight, not yet.

"And then there is you," He continued and Shinji stared at him blankly; "Aizen doesn't believe you are alive. I have heard that after you were created you died, as your body couldn't take the transformation,"

"He's in for a surprise," Shinji said grimly, but remembered something Orihime had told him.

"You should stay..."

"Wait," Shinji said, looking from the starry night sky to Ulquiorra; "When I finally got Orihime to talk to me she said..."

The pale vampyre gave a sharp nod; "That is correct. We knew what she was like around human's, if she saw someone who resembled you she would have backed away. It was a way to make sure she was safe,"

"You _knew_?"

"I agreed with the plan,"

"Why?" He asked, curious as to why this vampyre would allow his former leader to lie to his mate.

"At the time she had tried to rebel in unusual way, she used to try to get a human to pay attention her, make friends with them. With the Hunters around it was safer to lie to her,"

_Protecting her..._ Shinji thought to himself; "Does he actually believe that I am dead?"

"Yes. He said that you weren't likely to survive the process, you wouldn't have wanted to become a monster,"

_Aizen underestimated me. No. He underestimated Kisuke. _ Shinji thought to himself and then looked back at the other; "Who killed him?"

The pale vampyre blinked in what Shinji would call surprise, at least it was for Ulquiorra; "Who killed Kisuke you mean?" Shinji nodded; "I did,"

They looked at each other as the oldest one managed to get out; "Why?"

For the first time, Ulquiorra looked uncomfortable, it wasn't obvious, but over the weeks that Shinji had gotten to know his new vampyre friends he had learned that small things gave this male vampyre away;

"I left because she did. I obeyed orders because Aizen's plan would have worked..." He trailed off; "He also made subtle threats, one's that you would never notice unless you paid close attention to it,"

"Orihime," Shinji stated beginning to understand, almost.

"Exactly. However I would have done it regardless. We are nothing more than pawns in this game that he has set up,"

He breathed deeply, here he was face to face with his friend's killed and he would have killed them. Now he had a problem, now he _knew_ this killer and his mate. Ulquiorra was protecting his mate, regardless of what he had just said before, he was protecting something precious to him and Shinji couldn't kill him for that.

_'Well, there you go. Mystery solved.'_ He heard Kisuke speak so clearly in his head, the chirpiness that he felt couldn't be natural; _'You can let go of me now. You've learned the truth. Just... Don't tell her,'_

Finally Shinji looked Ulquiorra in the eye; "Don't tell Yourichi,"

"I won't," He replied with a smirk.

"Aizen underestimated him,"

He shook his head; "He underestimated _you_,"

"Kis..."

"No. Kisuke came up with the concept, but the details to actually _create_ a vampyre were missing, so Aizen filled in the gaps," He looked into those hazel eyes as he spoke; "Aizen had lost the first few that he created to make up our clan. He has also lost some recently as well, but they were nothing but trash. You lived without his assistance,"

Shinji broke the eye contact, feeling rather unnerved.

XXX

The room was always plain, that was how Ulquiorra had liked it long before she came into his life, but there was drops of colour around, for the odd paintings that she liked to the stuffed toys she collected.

Orihime didn't like this space anymore, she looked out of the window, watching the stars sparkle, hoping that Ulquiorra was all right, wishing that this whole plan was done so that she could go back to him.

She rarely left this room, a lot of the vampyre's of the clan looked down at her due to her love of humans, with Ulquiorra no longer there they had a better chance of getting to fight her. Thankfully she was still Lord Aizen's favorite, so fighting her would lead to an untimely end of this undead life.

A vampyre with wavy green hair and a large red birth mark over her noise knocked the door and came into the room, she carried two blood bags with her and Orihime looked at her in surprise.

"Morning Orihime," She said softly, offering one of the bags for her to fed.

Nel had worried about Orihime, she had been gone for over a month due to those Hunter's following her and her mate, and although revenge was on the cards she got the feeling that Orihime was hiding something.

"Morning Nel," She took the bag and began to fed, allowing the fresh blood to sooth away the ache she felt when she was away from her mate, even if it was only for a few seconds.

She was glad that she had Nel to keep her company, she had always been close to her and she never really knew her before the _accident_. Ulquiorra had explained it to her of course, but it never made any difference to her, in the end Nel was Nel, even if there was times when she reverted into her child-self.

"Did you get...?" She began to ask as she took the second bag.

"No. Gin stole it from a blood bank. Lord Aizen didn't want to have any human's in. He felt this would be better for you," She explained and Orihime nodded.

For some minutes the two were silent, while Orihime drank the other bag.

"Orihime?" Nel stood in front of the girl, blocking any view from the window, the other vampyre looked at her in confusion, unsure why Nel was getting so serious.

"I know you miss him and I also know that I could never understand what you are feeling, but he gave his life for you. Lord Aizen is creating a plan of revenge for you," Nel paused to look at her friend; "Come back to us,"

How Orihime wanted to correct her friend in so many ways, but she couldn't. Nel was loyal to Lord Aizen and nothing, _nothing_, not even her mate could deter her from his will. Ulquiorra always said it was ironic that Nel's mate hated Lord Aizen with a passion... But he had never been disrespectful to him. There had been many rumors about Nel's mate, but they were all untrue since Nel would always side with Lord Aizen.

This of course confused her, how could Nel always side with Lord Aizen? Ulquiorra had always been loyal to Lord Aizen before but he left without a second thought.

She couldn't think of _him _right now, she had a plan to execute and Nel's mate was to become part of it. He wasn't someone that Orihime was comfortable with, given with all the vampyre's who wanted to kill her, but Ulquiorra had assured her that he wouldn't harm her, even if he wasn't there.

"I... I guess I should get out," She sounded unsure and weary.

"No one will touch you, Lord Aizen has seen to that," Nel assured her with a smile.

"Only close friends. I should go and see Lord Aizen as well... He must have wondered about my absence... Although why didn't he send Gin to..."

Nel looked at her friend realizing how much she had missed that inane rambling. No other vampyre in the clan does such a thing, it was unique to Orihime and therefore special to hear it after such an event.

"Maybe he's busy... I don't want to intrude while he's busy..."

"Write a note," Nel finally interrupted, knowing that if she didn't Orihime could continue until dawn; "Write a note and I will give it to him. He has been busier than usual lately,"

"Yes, that would," _Work_ she had been about to say, but that wouldn't seem normal to Nel; "be great!"

"I am glad you are back, I must go, I am still to feed," Nel excused herself; "I shall bring you some paper and a pen, you have appeared to have lost yours,"

Orihime nodded in thanks as Nel left and let out a sigh.

_I hate lying to her. But he's right, she would tell Lord Aizen right away if I told her._ She stood up and placed her empty blood bags in the bin nearest the door as she left only to find an arm blocking her way out.

"Well well, how are you pet?"


	11. Chapter 11

Orihime looked up at the male vampyre, dark hair, with one gray eye and his left covered with an eye-patch . This was the vampyre that she didn't feel fully prepared to talk to right there especially after she had spoke to Nel.

"Hello Nnoitra,"

The vampyre grinned down at her as he stood up straight; "So, you're finally ready to come out and play then?"

She paused, but she knew she couldn't delay it, she might not see Nnoitra as often after this, he was one of the stronger vampyre's that Aizen created, not as strong as Ulquiorra, but still a fundamental part of his over all... _Ideal_.

"Actually, I needed to speak with you..." She looked around, and then allowed her gift to bring out her fairies, not noticing how startled Nnoitra was the moment she did that.

"Hey! What do you think..."

"Oh, no, I need to speak to you in private. A lot of people will want to listen in," She trailed off as he just nodded.

"All right, fine, but be quick," He snapped; "_Lord_ Aizen has a mission for me to complete,"

"Yes, of course," She felt flustered, she never had to have a conversation with just herself and him before; "I know you dislike Lord Aizen,"

"Tch, how can you tell?" Nnoitra said sarcastically; "Not that he can do anything about that, I do what he asks,"

"Would you... Would you wanttohelpdefeathim?"

"Try that again," He narrowed his eye at her; "I think you might need fresh blood," His gaze was one that Orihime thought could be seeing into her; but she knew better, Nnoitra didn't have that kind of gift, his temperament meant it would be suited to him and Lord Aizen wouldn't have kept him so far away from him; the man made it obvious that he didn't trust the tallest vampyre of the group, but that didn't mean that he feared him and to Nnoitra it was good enough.

The blood she just had flushed her face; "Would you... Want to help to... Defeat him? Lord Aizen I mean?"

He looked curious at first, but a few seconds later he glared at her; "What? A trick?"

Orihime shook her head violently; "No! No! Ulquiorra..." She felt relief at being able to actually say his name in front of someone without worrying that they would see through her lie.

"He's not dead?" He raised an eyebrow in surprise, he didn't think she was capable of actually lying to such a degree before; "Tch, that's some acting,"

"It's not acting," She whispered, feeling her eyes well up with more blood tears; "It _hurts_. I hate being away from him like this," She pushes the tears away, Nnoitra doesn't appreciate vampyre's who are overly emotional, if what she remembered Ulquiorra telling her was right.

He just looked at her, not being able to comprehend everything that she was feeling due to them being apart; he knew full well that Ulquiorra, although most likely feeling the same void as Orihime was, wouldn't be reacting as such.

"So, Ulquiorra is still alive. This is a way for you two to start a fight against _Lord _Aizen," He grinned; "I'd be risking a lot to join you... What's in it for me?"

She was grateful that he had foreseen this question, since she wouldn't have known how to answer;

"A fight, or more to the point, as many fights as you wish against his army,"

"Hehe, well consider me part of your group," He told her and she smiled happily; "When does _it_ begin?" He noticed that she looked unsure and sighed; "You don't _know_?"

"It's... It's difficult to get a message over..." Orihime began, she never tried to get a message to Ulquiorra because of all the watchful eyes that were on her; "I..."

"Tch, Neliel will bring you stuff to write with. Write a message to him," He told her, as she looked up at him in confusion; "_Lord _Aizen is sending me out more often now; he'll be sure to get it,"

She blinked a few times, surprised by what he just said; "O... Okay... Thank you,"

He turned his back on her and was about to leave; "You haven't really lost your humanity have you,"

He walked out and left her looking at his back, wondering why he would say such a thing.

That was Nnoitra, the most temperamental vampyre in the whole of Aizen's army. He had joined them. The rebels.

She took a tentative step out of her room and decided that she would have to have a serious rethink of her opinions of him, since Nel had obviously not told her everything about him.

As she walked down the hallway she thought to herself; _Nel is no longer herself. She's changed a lot..._ That was true, but since Orihime had been away and then come back she had noticed it a lot more than before; before she was more likely to forgive the vampyre for acting as she did, but now? The incident with Nel was the reason why Orihime had been so scared of meeting the Hunters, they were the reason why Nel could no longer control her gift, and would change from an adult to a child for no real reason at all.

"_Nnoitra must be so..." She had begun to say when they heard the news._

"_They don't have a bond," Ulquiorra told her and she looked at him in question; "Lord Aizen put them together out of necessity, not through choice,"_

Back then she didn't understand what he meant and he knew it, hence why he didn't press the matter further; but now? Now she could finally see it. The two didn't fit, it was just her being a typical romantic.

"Orihime," A familiar male voice said and she turned to see him.

"Lord Aizen," She smiled slightly as she snapped her thoughts away.

"I am glad that you are venturing out," He smiled back at her, but she could see clearly that it was cold, without any emotion.

"Yes. I... I am sorry that I didn't..." She started but the man shook his head.

"You have lost someone close to you Orihime, please take as much time as you need. Your brother's and sister's are exacting revenge on your behalf,"

She nodded; "Yes, Nel told me, thank you," She said with a slight bow; "I should thank Gin as well for the bags of blood..."

"Don't worry about that, Gin is out on a mission, he won't be back for a few days," Aizen informed her.

She looked away, hesitating on whether to ask another question.

"Now you don't need to be shy," He smirked, always finding this particular vampyre amusing to him due to her human behavior.

Once again her dinner flushed her cheeks; "I... Well I... I want to go out and feed," She looked him in the eye as she took a breath; "I want to prove to myself that these Hunter's haven't scared me and that..." She trailed off, unable to say Ulquiorra's name in front of this man.

Aizen nodded his understanding; "If you feel ready. I shall have Nel go with you. Grimmjow and Nnoitra will both be near by. Tomorrow will be all right, I know Nel has already gone to feed,"

"Thank you,"

He smiled and walked away, leaving her feeling relieved that she had actually face him and not cracked.

Deciding that she had done enough for the night, she headed back to her room.

XXX

The next night Orihime was ready to go out; Nel had given her paper and a pen to write a letter, although she had informed the green haired vampyre that she had already spoken to Aizen that night, but she would keep the writing supplies in case. Nel never questioned her, so once she was alone she got to writing her letter to him.

Before they left the room Nnoitra came in to see them, he grinned down at the pair;

"Off to hunt are we?"

Orihime knew full well that Nnoitra knew that they were going off on a hunt, but Nel didn't and that was the reason why he did this, as well as to get the latter. Aizen had decided that he shouldn't let Nel know that she was being treated differently from the rest and so it was only a selected few that were told to follow her and keep a close watch over her.

"Orihime wants to go back out," Nel stated, her eyes firmly on the tall vampyre, so she never noticed the letter that Orihime place on the small desk for him to take once they leave.

"After his death?" Nnoitra looked at the two; "I would say that you should kill all the Hunters and then fed off them..." Before he could say any more, Nel had brought out her sword and rested the tip at his neck.

"You know as well as I that Orihime doesn't do that,"

"But you do, don't you Neliel?" He taunted her, something he had to do, regardless of his order's or promises that he makes.

She narrowed her eyes at him and removed her sword from his neck to leave the room with Orihime following.

"Go near Yourichi's home," She whispered in passing.

Nnoitra picked up the note; "A werecat..." He muttered as he left the room and went out for another of Aizen's missions.

XXX

Nnoitra had expected Ulquiorra to have noticed his presence by now, and if he hadn't then maybe one of the werecats... He was far enough from Yourichi's mansion that she wouldn't come out herself, but he figured that he was close enough for one of the others to come out and fight him; and he could really do with a good ol' fight right about now.

He noticed a change in the air and spotted a man in front of him wearing a cap.

"You're new," He commented as he looked at the man, shirt, tie, cap, blonde hair... It all seemed familiar to him.

"I'm older than you," The other said, looking at the taller vampyre werily.

"Where's Ulquiorra?" Nnoitra decided not to both with the nice talk, he wanted to get straight to business.

The blonde just starred at him for a moment; "Orihime sent you," He said, surprised.

"She needed to get a message over to him, now, who are you?"

"Shinji Hirako,"

Nnoitra narrowed his eye; "So, you are the first. If Aizen was wrong about you being dead then he must be wrong about a lot of other stuff too,"

"Who are you?" Shinji asked the new vampyre still on guard.

"Nnoitra. I was told that you're going to start a fight with Aizen," He grinned; "Heh, I want _in_,"

Looking at the other Shinji realized that he felt a bit unnerved, now he knew how people felt when he did it; but that wouldn't stop him from doing it.

"Really?"

"Tch, do you think Orihime would actually ask me to join you if it wasn't?" He told the other; "You want to dethrone Aizen, I'm in,"

Shinji carefully looked the other over again; "Why?"

"What?" That was one question he hadn't expected to be asked.

"Why do you hate Aizen? From what I've heard he's given all his vampyre's free reign to feast on all the humans and start fights with the werecats..." Shinji could have continued but Nnoitra interrupted him.

"We're still to do his _bidding_. He's a human! Besides, a massacre isn't what I want from this world, I don't care much for these humans, but they are food. The werecats are just fun to fight with," He laughed slightly; "Why everyone follows him..."

"You do,"

The tall vampyre glared at him; "The majority are with him. I want a real fight," He put his hand into his pocket and pulled out the note; "This is for Ulquiorra, she wanted some kind of contact,"

Shinji looked at the note, it wasn't actually addressed to anyone, just a flower.

"Now that's done, I'm off," He turned away from him and began to walk away.

"Come back in two night time," Shinji told him.

"Why?" The two just looked at each other wearily;

Nnoitra was unsure of this vampyre whom everyone thought was dead and was the _first_. Shinji due to the fact that this was still a vampyre that Aizen had made and although he trusted Ulquiorra and Orihime, he was still unsure about any of the others.

"Ulquiorra will have a note for her, and we'll have a plan,"

Nnoitra nodded and continued to move away then vanished.

Shinji just looked down at the letter again, he needed to see the pale vampyre tonight and see what he knew about this new vampyre who wished to join them. He would need to tell Yourichi and Ichigo about this new vampyre as well... But he'd deal with one thing at a time, right now he wanted to know what Orihime had sent them.


End file.
